UNH women's lacrosse gets past Vanderbilt

Thursday

Mar 29, 2012 at 3:15 AMMar 29, 2012 at 10:57 AM

By ALEX LACASSEPortsmouth Herald

DURHAM — In a wild back and forth frenzy, the University of New Hampshire women's lacrosse team may have turned its season around with a 12-11 upset of 12th-ranked Vanderbilt at Memorial Field on Wednesday afternoon.

Freshman Laura Puccia scored the game-winner when she crept around the back of the goal, took a feed from senior captain Ilana Cohen on the right side of the net and stuffed the feed past the Commodore goalie with 4:29 left in regulation.

"What a difference two weeks makes," UNH head coach Michael Daly said. "I think we showed a lot of resolve to play a team like Vanderbilt and to keep fighting back. We came out to win, not be good or be close to Vanderbilt. We came to beat them."

Puccia had five goals on the day, with Cohen assisting on four.

"It feels good to get that confidence from one of your captains," Puccia said. "Ilana and I work really well together. She keeps her head up and she is able to throw some tight feeds in there."

UNH plays at Vermont (6-3) on Saturday and Daly hopes this is the start of a level of consistency that has yet to show up for stretches in some games.

"We know we have the heart but we have not always put it all together collectively," he said. "This is a signature win for this season. If we cannot build off this one, we can't build off anything."

The Wildcats, who improved to 3-5 on the season, never backed down from the Commodores (5-4) as they battled back from two separate two-goal deficits in the second half.

"I just think you saw two teams show up very differently today," Vanderbilt head coach Cathy Swezey said. "New Hampshire came out here and put all their heart into the game and it showed."

Vanderbilt came out and scored 19 seconds into the second half and led 7-5. UNH junior Jenny Simpson cut the deficit to 7-6, but the Commodores ran the score back up to 8-6. Then, UNH senior captain Kate Keagins scored two goals, both times breaking away following a steal. The first made it 8-7 and the second cut the Vanderbilt lead to 9-8.

Kayleigh Hinkle's goal at 17:30 tied the game at 9-9, and after Vanderbilt took a 10-9 lead, UNH scored two unanswered goals by Puccia and Rachael Nock and enjoyed its first lead in the second half.

"The biggest thing today was our team came out strong on defense and we had each other's back on all areas of the field," said UNH junior goalie Kathleen O'Keefe, who had 14 saves.